The present invention is directed to gaming machines of the type that may be found in a casino and, more particularly, to apparatuses and methods for copying configuration settings from one gaming machine to another gaming machines.
A general type of conventional gaming machines has been provided with a display unit that is capable of generating video images, a value input device, a processor that controls the overall operation of the gaming machine and a memory that may store particular configuration settings or data concerning how an operator of the gaming machine desires the particular machine to be configured. The processor, for example, may utilize particular configuration data stored in the memory to control such items as the volume of particular sounds issued by the machine during various periods of game play, display options of the video images displayed on the display unit, the accepted denomination of the values input to the gaming device or how particular promotional gaming credits are awarded and accepted by the gaming machine. Typically, the conventional gaming machine memory stores hundreds of particular configuration settings. These configuration settings typically may be programmed by the casino on an individual machine basis. That is, a casino operator may interface the processor and memory via an interface and select particular settings in order to configure the gaming machine as desired. In casinos having large numbers of gaming machines, of which several of the gaming machines may be configured identically, setting the configuration settings of each of these gaming machines on a one by one basis becomes time consuming and burdensome.